For me Amazon is the best deal going around. My sis is not computer literate so being able to just have a book sent to her through Wispernet offsets the negatives like this remote delete thing that has happened

We just don't know how much amazon is seeing what you are doing on your kindle, if it is anything like Amazon's site, they track everything I do on that site, and gear there ads to things I check out. Now if you just have amazon stuff on your kindle and no personal stuff and you get refunded anything they remove , kindle 2 would be good for you, as others seem to feel.

Update: According to commenters on Amazon, this message was sent out from the company's customer service department:

The Kindle edition books Animal Farm by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) & Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase. When this occured, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available. Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from the Kindle store.

It's one thing to simply remove an item from the Kindle store if a publisher changes their mind about selling kindle versions, but it's another thing entirely to delete all copies that were sold.

At the time they were bought, they had an agreement to sell them. They were legal copies, in every way. Just because someone changes their mind about how they are distributed, does NOT mean that all copies that were sold are removed from legitimate purchases.

It's one thing to simply remove an item from the Kindle store if a publisher changes their mind about selling kindle versions, but it's another thing entirely to delete all copies that were sold.

At the time they were bought, they had an agreement to sell them. They were legal copies, in every way. Just because someone changes their mind about how they are distributed, does NOT mean that all copies that were sold are removed from legitimate purchases.

I have to agree. There for a while I wanted a Kindle to go with my EZ reader. I thought it'd be the best of both worlds, so to speak...Access to Amazon's selection but (unless the files were Topaz) able to be read on either device (after some not to be mentioned tinkering). All the talk about Amazon disabling access to ebooks people had bought, removing content from Kindles via Whispernet, etc. has changed my mind. Yes, I'd still like to have access to Amazon's selection, there are things there you can't get anywhere else (Like the Stephen Lawhead Robin Hood trilogy). But it's simply not worth it to me to take that kind of risk. Once I buy it, it's mine. You don't get to come to my house without an invitation and take it back. Neither do you get to access my device without permission and delete it.

I'm glad I don't have to worry about this crap. And while I understood where they were coming from with the Rand situation (though I didn't necessarily agree with it), this is just plain wrong.

As for alternatives, let's hope that Google does a good job with their ebook store. They're one of the only companies (aside from Amazon) I can think of that has the clout to nudge publishers in the right direction.

Why the fuss? Amazon sold people a license to use the content in a limited set of ways, then withdrew that license. It's just like a rental car company ringing you to say the car you got isn't safe and sorry they don't have a replacement available. Kinda tough on you, but better than discovering exactly how unsafe it is. Getting whacked for a million bucks or so for each book (RIAA numbers) would hurt way more than losing access to a book.

I look at DRMed books as rentals. You don't own anything other than a restricted right to access the book in a narrowly restricted set of ways. Just like renting a video or anything else. Any time the seller likes they can yank the content. That's never been a secret, it's happened before and it will happen again. If you don't like it, don't rent books.

Why the fuss? Amazon sold people a license to use the content in a limited set of ways, then withdrew that license.

I look at DRMed books as rentals. You don't own anything other than a restricted right to access the book in a narrowly restricted set of ways. Just like renting a video or anything else. Any time the seller likes they can yank the content. That's never been a secret, it's happened before and it will happen again. If you don't like it, don't rent books.

No...
Just don't buy a Kindle or any other hardware you do not have complete control of.

Grrr this is madness. They are trying to take us from a model where we buy a paper book to which they own the copyright for (the ability to press more copies) to a model where we 'rent' a virtual item that we don't have full control over and which they can take back?

Sorry Amazon, this is just ridiculous. Please let there be an Apple tablet with less draconian/ludicrous DRM and copyright enforcement.

For me Amazon is the best deal going around. My sis is not computer literate so being able to just have a book sent to her through Wispernet offsets the negatives like this remote delete thing that has happened

Obviously the point here is, "Easy come, easy go!"

Or perhaps pushing things a bit further, "Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away. Blasted be the name of Amazon!"